(Hypebot) — Artists and labels may be wasting their precious promotional dollars and time if they’re still chasing airplay on hundreds of individual radio stations rather than focusing on 4 digital services, according to new data from Morgan Stanley.
The numbers don’t lie.
US adults over 65 spend 57% of their listening time on broadcast radio, but listeners aged 18-29 spend just 14% of their time there.
Digital is increasingly grabbling listening time that once was radio’s and below you can see how that digital divide increases dramatically in younger audiences.
![](https://www.radiotoday.com.au/wp-content/uploads/MorganStanley-listening-chart.png)
In that digital space, the influence of smaller and legacy outlets is also on the decline as increasingly digital listening is occurring on just four platforms
![](https://www.ped30.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-20-at-7.47.52-PM.png)
Unless your target audience is over 65, effort spent marketing on just four digital services – SiriusXM, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music – rather than hundreds of radio outlets offers a far greater potential to build and maintain an audience.
Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.